FIRST LEGO LEAGUE:​HYDROBOTS

OUR SEARCH FOR INFORMATION

Our team did a lot of reading and took field trips to learn about water in London, Ontario. We visited a primary water treatment facility in Elgin as well as a wastewater treatment facility in London, Ontario. We learned from our research that Londoners are using a lot of water - more than is necessary. We also read about the water cycle and the surprising ways we use water in our daily life that we don’t even think about.We also learned that people are using their drains like a garbage can. Everything that goes down the drain has to be taken out again at the wastewater treatment facility. Sometimes, drains become clogged and this causes system back ups.

WHY IS THIS HAPPENING?​

We wondered if the reason for improper waste disposal and other problems is that people aren’t aware of the problems or if people don’t understand the connection between what they do at home and what happens to the sewer system. We wondered if people were aware that water is a non-renewable resource and what they can help to conserve water in their daily lives.

We wondering if children are taught about water conservation in schools, so we looked up the Ontario curriculum for science. We saw that information about water conservation is presented for the first time in grade 2.

In summary our research showed us that, in London, it appears that our efforts to teach people about water conservation and water system use is mostly for adults or older children (there are teaching resources for grades 11-12). The Ontario Ministry of Education requires students to learn about water conservation as very small part of the grade 2 curriculum. The city of London has made a resource to help teachers explain some topics related to water (water cycle, floods, drought, water a non-renewable resource, conserve water).​

OUR SOLUTION

Our idea to address lack of awareness about water conservation and our water system in our community was to create a series of Lego animated videos aimed at children.. Each video would teach a lesson about what we should/should not do when it comes to water use.

Although there are videos to teach children about water conservation online already, we think that using Lego animation will be attractive to viewers. Having a series is unique and lessons can be added for children as they gain responsibility (such as doing the laundry).

We took the time to create the first episode to show what our solution could look like. Episode 1 is called “Your Toilet is Not a Garbage Can”.

​We think that teaching children about responsible water use at a young age will help them create good habits early, which is better than trying to break bad water habits later. This solution could be used by teachers when they teach about water conservation in grade 2 or by families who want to teach their children about water conservation in a fun way.We decided that it would make sense to create a lot of different episodes with one problem and solution in each one so kids could understand more easily that getting a lot of information in one video. We also decided to keep each video short to keep their attention.​

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OTHER EPISODE TOPICS

Episode 2: Turn Off the Taps When Brushing Your TeethEpisode 3: Use Rainwater to Water Your Plants/GardenEpisode 4: Take Short Showers (Aim for 3 minutes)Episode 5: Water Your Garden With A BucketEpisode 6: Don’t Pour Grease Down The DrainEpisode 7: Check For Leaky FaucetsEpisode 8: Repair and Reuse Your Clothes (It takes 7600 L of water to make one pair of jeans and 2750 L of water to make one cotton t-shirt)Episode 9: Run your dishwasher or washing machine on a full load.Episode 10: Try not to waste food (It takes 520 L to make a loaf of bread, 1000 L to grow a watermelon, 790 L for one banana, and 1700 L for one chocolate bar)

CREATING OUR VIDEO

To make our video, we first brainstormed all of the ways we had learned that water is overused in our community. We also thought about the ways system is burdened by waste. We included the ones that kids are most likely to understand and be able to change on their own.Next, we learned how to use stop motion animation and green screens. We also learned to incorporate music, video, and voiceover to improve on the creation. Editing was a skill we also learned!Our video is now posted on YouTube, a platform millions of people use every day.

THIS PART WILL BE WRITTEN ONCE THE KIDS PRESENT THEIR PROJECT TO TROJAN AND THE GRADE 2 GROUPTeam shared with an engineer from Trojan Technologies (describe role and feedback)

Team shared with the lead supervisor of London Wastewater Treatment Facilities to suggest adding the video to the city’s YouTube channel?

Team shared with a grade 2 class, a group that the video would be targeted to

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SHARING OUR PROJECT

On November 27, we visited Trojan Technologies, where we shared our project and got a tour. On November 29, we gave a presentation to a grade 2 class to share our animated video. We also emailed Barry Orr from the City of London's Wastewater Treatment Operations department (Sewage Outreach and Control Inspector) and Gary Burrows, Supervisor of Operations - PCP Operations to share our ideas and our video.